Activist, socialite and politician, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa is unruffled by controversies. For decades, the Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters to former President Olusegun Obasanjo was a staple for many gossip magazines and celebrity tabloids and had had a slew of slurs thrown at her to the extent that she developed thick skin against them. Recently, the vivacious woman stumbled on a fresh controversy which she thought could be fatal to her reputation if treated like the former ones because of the quarters they were coming from: her home state.
The foremost politician, fondly called Mama Bakassi a couple of weeks ago, raised the alarm that the relief materials sent by the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and received by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for onward donation to fire outbreak victims at Day Spring Island in Bakassi, were allegedly shared by some Cross River State government officials and the rest sold off instead of delivering them to the displaced persons. She further revealed that some of the relief materials were allegedly found in the residence of a top politician in Calabar, the state capital. A month after, she claimed nothing concrete has happened. Rather than arresting those accused of the alleged diversion, allegations are being hurled at her including the alleged diversion of materials and resettlement fund meant for the rehabilitation of her people way back.
For instance, the Senator was accused of being involved in the setting up of a phony resettlement camp in Akpabuyo Local Government on which pretense, relief materials were solicited but allegedly shared by her and her cohorts. This was followed by a protest against her person in Ikang by some youths believed to have been induced.
But a miffed Ita-Giwa said inasmuch as the allegations are laughable and should be treated with a pinch of salt, she is ready to approach the court to clear her names and make those peddling the “spurious allegations” pay for their misdemeanour. The former Senator reminded those she claimed have been running a sustained and coordinated campaign to demonise her person and make rubbish of all her efforts towards alleviating the plight of the Bakassi people, that long before she dabbled into politics, she had been a comfortable and successful woman with thriving business since the 1980s.
According to her, she lives in the richest neighbourhood of Banana Island in Lagos where she owns an eye-gaping mansion. Ita-Giwa said for over 40 years, she has maintained her apartment in the posh Kensington, West London, and that she has been so blessed that when Bakassi lands were ceded to Cameroun, she left 13 fully built houses, schools and generators in those places without a flinch.
“Like Americans would say: ‘What’s gotta be done; must be done’. I have to recondition myself to come to these people’s level out of my love and concerns for them. I have always been busy. I am very happy and comfortable in Lagos where I have lived for decades. They don’t know the pains I go through to go to those places in Calabar and Bakassi. I am a cosmopolitan and not a village or riverine person. So, these people making wild allegations against me don’t know what they were saying,” she said.
Spotlight gathered that since Ita-Giwa blew the whistle over the alleged diversion of the relief materials by the state officials, her relationship with the state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade has strained. She is said to be under attacks by officials of the same governor who hitherto, described her as “a dream and pride of our state. One of those great assets of Cross River State.”
The state government officials, according to her, have been harassing her and this has extended her businesses in the state, particularly her posh restaurant, Fusion located in Calabar. She is already contemplating shutting down and relocating it to Lagos in August.